Tony Griffin: Learning to play the game of life

Former Clare hurler Tony Griffin will take part in a panel discussion next Saturday during the GAA’s second national Health & Wellbeing Conference in Croke Park. In 2011, Tony and Karl Swan set up the Soar Foundation, with its central belief that within all young people is greatness.

Q: Jim Stynes unleashed your passion for creating wellness programmes? 

A: Jim’s documentary ‘Every Heart Beats True’ kind of hit me like a sledgehammer in the chest and myself and Karl decided to go to Melbourne and find out about the work Jim had pioneered with young people through GAA. Jim wasn’t far from passing away. We started with Reach, his foundation and studied what they did.

Q: What struck a chord with you?

A: With the downturn, the national narrative was so negative. And I wondered what it would be like to grow up as a young person in this country and be exposed to that level of negativity in the media and in kitchens all around the country.

What I loved about Reach was they didn’t come with answers. They didn’t come to young people saying: ‘If you do the following things you will have a successful life’. Because young people are spoken to constantly about what they should do.

A lot of young people are very, very tuned in. They are almost more connected to their own intuition than a lot of adults, because we have learned to play the game of life. They still have this beautiful openness and they are still trying to figure themselves out, let alone the game of life.

Jim created spaces that young people found really cool, really engaging and where they could take off the mask that they were wearing to fit in.

Q: Who does the Soar Foundation help?

A: Some of these kids, no one knows they are struggling because they are the captain of the hurling team or they are head debater and they just are struggling underneath. We’ve had kids that are going home to take their own life. They come into school that morning knowing it’s going to be their last day on earth.

I couldn’t count the number of times we’ve had bullies stand up and apologise to guys or girls in their class and explain the problem was within themselves.

They are often just waiting for someone to believe in them or show them what they don’t see in themselves. We usually work with fifth class, transition years. We train 18-to-27 year olds to facilitate the workshops. In certain cases, we channel the kids to organisations for counselling or aftercare.

Q: What role does sport play in what you do?

A: A massive role. A lot of our facilitators play sport. It’s a very easy connector for three or four guys to walk into a school if they play rugby or play hurling and know the story with the kids. We are working with the GPA and we are using inter-county stars to facilitate workshops on masculinity.

Q: Do you find that sometimes sport becomes a negative influence and young people struggle with the pressure?

A: We do live in a very outcome-orientated society. It’s about results and that’s very much part of sport. I was the same, I wanted to make the team, I wanted to score 1-2 a game or more. For young people now, there are very few places they can go just to be absorbed in play. But I don’t think we can take out that competitiveness. I’m actually very excited about where Ireland is. The numbers of people getting out for their run or getting into the gym for a Pilates class. It’s normal. I remember when Anthony Daly introduced Yoga in Clare, it was like tantric sex or something.

Q: One of the Soar mottos is ‘To hell what they think’. Is Ireland changing in this regard?

A: Whether it’s Conor McGregor or Paul Galvin, there are a lot of these types of role models now, unafraid of what people think of them, and willing to push boundaries. Some people dislike that, others are inspired by it. Very often the shackles that inhibit us is that fear of what THEY will think down the club or wherever. A big part of Soar is just allowing people be who you want to be. Not who your parents or your friends want you to be.

Q: Who does Tony Griffin want to be now?

A: I’d say himself. He’s still figuring that one out and he hopes that journey will never end. For me it’s absolutely not a destination. My wife and I had a baby son five weeks ago so I’ve discovered what it’s like to be a father. I would like to impact people’s lives along the way but also make space to continue on my own journey. I know that word is overused, but the more I stop looking at how I get to a certain point and just try and be where I am, the happier I seem to be.

Q: What sport are you playing at the moment?

A: I run, I got back into the gym in the last year. I do a little bit of Pilates and Yoga. I’m Dublin-based, so I don’t get down home to play as much as I’d like, but I might get re-graded and play Junior A sometime.

Q: What will stop the current crop of young Clare hurlers becoming everything they can be?

A: I absolutely don’t have the answer. But top of any list must be how you connect as a group. Do we know why we are here for each other? When individuals are intuitively in tune then the magic can happen. Secondly, it’s individuals at some point realising it’s time to find out what gets me performing at my absolute best. This is something that could be coached at a younger level. Does roaring and shouting in the dressing room get you going or does it actually put you off? You have a great day one day, not great the next and that consistency is hard to achieve.

Q: Did you find out when you were at your best?

A: I could find a way to get into a certain place that allowed me to express myself on the field. Not everyone looks at it like that. Some guys just go and play and it works. I used to wish I would be that way. But in 2006 I won an All-Star and I’m convinced it was because I tried to embrace failure as opposed to being afraid to fail.

Q: How does that work? You literally aren’t worried if you drive the first three balls wide?

A: That’s it. I didn’t mind the outcome. I tried to get myself into a place that I didn’t mind being shouted at, I didn’t mind being guilty that I’ve put a ball wide. I’m going to embrace it to see how that feels. It was a little thing I used to do and it changed my mindset. It then didn’t matter what the manager thought, or anyone thought. It didn’t even matter what I thought of myself. I was independent of it all. It’s kind of an abstract concept, but it worked for me.

* The Soar Foundation is an 100% independently-funded organisation that always needs your support. Visit www.soar.ie  to donate and find out about what they do.